Parties, public cry foul as SIR drive excludes lakhs of voters in Kerala

On Saturday, the Congress enactment handed implicit a missive from Anandan Nambiar, an 85-year-old elector from Taliparamba successful Kannur district, to the Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar. Originally addressed to the Electoral Registration Officer (Taliparamba), it reads: “Sir, arsenic I was not astatine location erstwhile the enumeration signifier for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), I was included successful the Absent/Shifted/Dead (ASD) database arsenic ‘Form Rejected.’ I petition you to see me, who is successful the existing voters’ database of Booth 154, successful the draught electoral rotation and not contradict maine my close to vote.” The erstwhile Indian Railways worker adds that his sanction does not fig connected the 2002 SIR rolls arsenic helium was posted successful Odisha astatine the time. ‘Family mapping’ excessively is intolerable successful his lawsuit arsenic some his parents had died earlier 2002.

Nambiar’s is simply a not an isolated case. On December 20, Rajaji Mathew Thomas, a erstwhile CPI legislator, created a flutter erstwhile helium stood up and complained astatine a play governmental enactment gathering connected SIR chaired by the CEO (Kerala) that helium and his woman Shantha had been near retired of the electoral roll. Political parties highlighted it arsenic 1 much illustration of the flaws successful the SIR workout successful Kerala.

After the Election Commission of India (EC) published the draught rotation connected December 23, Thomas recovered that his sanction figures ion it, but his woman is inactive near out!

“The names of some my parents were connected the 2002 list, but not mine. After I raised the contented astatine the December 20 meeting, my sanction has present been included connected the draught rolls. But my wife’s sanction remains excluded. She has been a regular elector since 1991, and she has besides voted successful the just-concluded section assemblage polls,” says Thomas. 

MLA excessively connected list

The names of Thiruvalla MLA Mathew T. Thomas and Raman Srivastava, a erstwhile State Police Chief, some of whom person been continuously residing successful the State and enrolled arsenic voters for long, were besides missing connected the draught list, according to the Kerala government.

Srivastava says helium has not yet checked the draught rotation but points retired that helium has been casting his ballot successful each election. “I person an predetermination ID paper issued successful 1997 and a caller 1 subsequently issued. From 1986 onwards, I person been voting successful a booth astatine the UP School successful Kulasekharam successful Thiruvananthapuram. But I was not present from October 1999 to October 2004. So, my sanction seemingly is not connected the 2002 list. But I person been voting successful each the consequent elections. My sanction should person been determination somewhere,” argues Srivastava.   

A whopping 24.08 lakh voters, which accounts for 8.65% of the electorate, basal deleted from the draught rolls published connected December 23 astatine the decision of the house-to-house enumeration signifier of the Kerala SIR. This has caught the governmental parties arsenic good arsenic the voters disconnected guard. Of these, 6,49,885 were identified arsenic dead, portion 1,36,029 were ‘duplicate names.’

But the ‘untraceable/absent’ (6,45,548 names), the ‘permanently shifted’ (8,16,221 names), and the ‘others’ class person garnered overmuch attention. As galore arsenic 1,60,830 voters person reportedly refused to judge oregon instrumentality the enumeration forms. These 5 categories unneurotic signifier the ‘uncollectables’ successful EC parlance.

For instance, 2 polling stations astatine St. Teresa’s Higher Secondary School successful the Ernakulam Assembly constituency Pattom Thanu Pillai Memorial Upper Primary School successful the Thiruvananthapuram constituency, separated by a region of implicit 200 km, person a precocious fig of ‘missing’ voters.

As of December 23, the booth successful Ernakulam has 382 entries connected the ASD list, and the 1 successful the State superior has a whopping 538 entries.

A fewer of these voters are either dormant oregon person moved retired permanently. However, a immense bulk of them are listed arsenic ‘untraceable/absent.’ The numbers whitethorn look small. Yet, they are important arsenic the elector colonisation of a polling presumption is present constricted to 1,200 voters.

While officials engaged successful the revision process support that the improvement is mostly confined to Kerala’s municipality areas, governmental parties are racking their brains, trying to measure the accuracy of the draught electoral rolls and the updated ASD database published by the EC.

Enumeration forms were distributed to 2,78,50,855 voters during the house-to-house campaign. Yet, the draught rolls person lone 2,54,42,352 voters. This has made comparisons with the electoral rolls maintained by the State Election Commission (SEC), which manages the elections to the section bodies, inevitable.

For the December 2025 elections to the section bodies, the SEC database had 2,86,05,525 voters successful all, 31.63 lakh voters much than the draught rolls present published by the EC.

Political parties support that galore of the missing voters are live and person been regular voters, and it would beryllium unfair to inquire them to enroll arsenic caller voters. They besides allege that enumeration forms person remained undistributed successful galore places.

“We are successful the process of assessing the EC’s draught rolls. We are definite that astatine slightest 40% of the radical connected the ASD database are inactive successful Kerala,” says M.K. Rahman, a elder Congress person who represents the enactment successful the reappraisal meetings of CEO (Kerala). Rahman has been keenly contesting the EC’s claims regarding the numbers successful the ‘untraceable,’ ‘permanently shifted,’ and ‘others’ categories.

Those connected the ‘unmapped list’

M.V. Jayarajan, a elder person of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), echoes these concerns. “It is present evident that what the governmental parties person been saying is true. Only 2.54 crore of the 2.78 crore voters successful the electoral rolls arsenic connected October 27, 2025, person recovered a spot connected the draught rolls. Around 19.32 lakh voters connected the draught rolls are connected the ‘unmapped’ list. Their names could not beryllium linked (mapped) to the 2002 SIR rolls. These voters would beryllium issued notices to nutrient documents and found their identity,” says Jayarajan.

The EC’s determination to spell up with the SIR had sparked interest successful Kerala. Apart from their ideological and governmental objections to the SIR, governmental parties drew attraction to applicable issues progressive successful the process. Moreover, ensuring that Kerala’s ample expatriate population, exceeding 30 lakh, is not near retired posed a stiff challenge. Political parties’ request that the SIR beryllium postponed successful presumption of the section assemblage elections successful Kerala was not accepted by the EC.

On September 29, the Kerala Assembly passed a unanimous solution urging the EC to desist from actions that could “potentially harm the people’s rights.” The solution besides raised concerns astir the timing of the process, arsenic it coincided with the section assemblage polls. The determination to usage the 2002 SIR rotation arsenic the basal papers and the eligibility conditions prescribed for voters besides invited absorption from governmental parties.

The alleged enactment unit and ‘deadline anxiety’ faced by the booth-level officers (BLOs), who distributed and collected the enumeration forms to voters and uploaded the information online, came into crisp absorption pursuing the termination of Aneesh George, a BLO successful Payyannur, Kannur district. The BLOs struck enactment and took retired protestation marches connected November 17.

By then, the request for extending the SIR deadlines had go louder. With the SEC going up with its plans for holding the section assemblage elections successful December, governmental parties informed the EC that the authorities machinery and their booth-level agents would beryllium tied up with the electoral process. Moreover, the SEC was successful the process of updating its ain electoral rolls done enrolment campaigns. All successful all, the operational overlap with the section assemblage polls would confuse the public, yet affecting the prime of SIR, the parties alleged.

Subsequently, the Kerala government, the CPI(M), and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) moved the Supreme Court seeking an hold of the deadline.

Kelkar has been holding play meetings with governmental parties for updating them astir the process and its progress. The media is allowed entree to these meetings, and property releases connected the process are being issued regularly. Special camps were besides organised crossed the State for collecting the filled-up forms and digitising the data. The ASD database is besides published successful beforehand to let enactment workers to assistance hint the missing voters. “Our mandate is to see each eligible voters connected the rolls and exclude ineligible voters. But we person tried to instrumentality the process guardant by making it much participatory,” says Kelkar. Voters tin beryllium enrolled until the past time of the filing of nominations for the 2026 Assembly elections, helium assures.

Final database connected Feb. 21

The claims and objections to the draught database tin beryllium filed till January 22, and the hearing/verification signifier ends connected February 14. The last electoral rotation is scheduled to beryllium published connected February 21, accidental officials.

On December 19, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged the EC to re-examine the SIR process and debar undue haste, portion suggesting that voters should not beryllium omitted connected technicalities. In a ceremonial missive from the Chief Secretary of Kerala, A. Jayathilak, to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Kerala authorities listed the flaws successful the workout and sought an hold of astatine slightest 2 weeks for the submission of enumeration forms.

Though the State authorities highlighted the cases of Mathew T. Thomas, Rajaji Thomas, and Srivastava arsenic circumstantial instances of adjacent high-profile citizens being near retired from the list, and sought hold of clip for the completion of the process, the plea was turned down.

Now, lakhs of voters, who person recovered themselves removed from the list, look the arduous task of queuing up earlier the designated officials to get themselves enrolled arsenic caller voters.